The privatization of U.S. 36 is fundamentally flawed. The private entity’s goals are to minimize its costs (on snow removal and maintenance), maximize revenues (meaning tolls), limit its risk (it is investing only 6 percent of the total project cost), and avoid any downside (by fighting innovative actions to reduce auto traffic), while the public’s goals are exactly the opposite.

This is not like normal short-term contracting, where documents are standardized and reputations for future work are at stake. This is a 50-year deal; if there is a flaw in the contract, there’s no going back.

The process has been utterly lacking in transparency; the full contract is 600 pages, with only about 15 percent made public. The numbers are scary; the maximum two-way toll starts at $28. And the toll approval process is completely opaque, with no apparent objective criteria, open process or judicial/legislative/citizen review of the decisions by the Colorado High Performance Transportation Enterprise board.

Steve Pomerance, Boulder

This letter was published in the Feb. 14 edition.

The Denver Post seems to be among the few in this state who understand it costs money to build and maintain modern highways.

Coloradans have choices when it comes to rebuilding the U.S. 36 corridor:

They can choose to pay more taxes, enough to pay for the U.S. 36 corridor improvement. As this appears to be a losing proposition with voters, they can accept a public-private partnership in which investors — frequently Portuguese, French or Spanish — provide the necessary funds up-front and users of the new highway then pay tolls that will reimburse the investors and provide them with a profit. Or, they can do nothing, which seems to be preferred by most Colorado taxpayers whenever the word “taxes” is uttered.

For those who question who will be in charge of snow removal and filling of potholes on the corridor, do Coloradans not understand that such issues are dealt with in the contract that is being negotiated for the project?

Lawrence Kaufman, Golden

This letter was published in the Feb. 14 edition.

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No, we want improvements without paying for it — regardless of whether it’s tolls or taxes.
People don’t get that the improvements have to be paid for, one way or another.

Dano2

And there is no leadership to step up and say we have to pay for infrastructure backlogs, improvements, and maintenance.

Best,

D

DR

Truthfully, I have no idea whats going with U.S. 36. I was just being a smart a$$ with a quote from a paragraph that could have been worded better.

toohip

yeah, but not this way

peterpi

Is US 36 itself being remade as a toll road — or are HOT lanes being added?

reinhold23

HOT lanes, and privatizing maintenance is what I’ve read.

toohip

so . . “options?” Like toll lanes for the impatient and rich?

Old_Enough

If an outside company can make money and maintain the road, why can’t Colorado make money and maintain the road? And probably for less than $28 round trip since Colorado doesn’t have to make a profit over and above the maintenance and toll collection expenses. When I went to school in Boulder in 1966, 36 was a toll road. It cost 25 cents one way and paid for itself years early.

Dave52

Remember how Dick Lamb refused to continue collecting the toll after the road was paid for?

Old_Enough

I had forgotten that. Good ole Dick.

toohip

(can’t believe you said that! :o)

toohip

Commie anti-capitalist!!!!!

peterpi

Yep. I remember that. Us kids used to fight over who would give the quarter.

toohip

Wow, I didn’t get here until 1980, but you “locals” ;o) are dating yourselves! Coming from the midwest, I never saw a toll road until I moved out east!

Dave52

Well, this is the way Ayn Rand would have handled it.

But my money is on the private company improving the road, then The People’s Republic of Boulder will nationalize it.

Old_Enough

Go, Boulder!

toohip

Wouldn’t that make the usual suspects spin!

Dano2

I’m sure the Independence Institute is giddy – a Privatized Road in their backyard! Praise be! I’ve been to a lot of places, and Denver has the highest tolls I’ve encountered. I doubt that these prices will do much to alleviate congestion. And the private side could give a rat’s patootie about congestion, so it’s all good.

Best,

D

kelcy

The $28 max toll is bogus. It may say $28 in 2014 dollars but undoubtedly it has an escalation clause that will allow that number to grow based on inflation that is tied to something. There are any number of “somethings” out there today but no doubt they will all be greater than the income growth of those using the toll road.

While I don`t support the toll road (since we can all see how well the E470 does (Not)) but I really don`t support outsourcing it to a non-US private company. They might create a US based subsidiary but all that does is add another layer of cost to maintain a false front.

guesswhodrews

If you need to get to the airport and want to miss rush hour traffic, E470 works great. As for the non-US company, I agree with you on that.

toohip

If you Google maps directions from Castle Rock to DIA, if you use E470 it takes 43 minutes. If you use I225, it takes 49 minutes. I think for an extra 6 minutes of one’s life, it’s worth avoiding serving privatization! I realize “privatization” is a “religion” for some, but keep the faith and pass the ammunition.

Dave52

When was the last time you tried to drive 225 in rush hour?

toohip

I don’t live on that side of the city (west near Morrison), but Google calculates based on traffic. At that moment, the difference was 6 minutes, which was my point.

Dave52

Over the past three years, I’ve had to come to Denver and drive I225 far more often than I’d like. Not a scientific survey, but I’d say well over half the times I get on the road, I’m in a traffic jam for at least 20 minutes, often stop-and-go all the way.

eddie47d

It seems like some folks are making this into a northern corridor issue when Hwy 36 is a State Highway. No different than Hampden Ave,6th Ave or Santa Fe, etc. and we all use these routes at sometimes in our lives. How about Rt 24 in Colorado Springs or any other state highway? Should we turn them all into toll roads where only certain neighborhoods and cities have to pay for roads that everyone occasionally uses. Hwy 36 is used by Longmont, Louisville, Arvada, Westminister and others such as folks going up to Estes Park. 6th Ave and Hampden is used by Lakewood,Denver Wheatridge, Golden,Conifer, Morrison and a host of other cities. Should it also be turned into a toll even though people who live in Littleton, Aurora and so forth use these routes to go into the mountains or gambling. Toll roads force people to use other routes thus burdening other roads and neighborhoods so what you gain on one end you place problems on other roads and communities. All state highways should continue to be built and maintained by the state just like the Interstate system is built and maintained for the most part by the Federal Transportation Department. I-90 going out of Chicago is a toll road and I’m glad I seldom had to use it. Tolls don’t guarantee that these roads will be maintained any better than the next highway over. Yet they force certain people to pay an extraordinary amount of money to get to and from work and they still have to pay state highway taxes on top of that. Can you afford $28 a day or double that if its one way. Tolls also can back traffic up so if there is a booth at Pecos St wouldn’t it slow traffic back to I-25 thus snarling that area. Traffic is much heavier now than it was back in the late 60’s when 36 was a Turnpike and Pecos St had a toll booth. .

Dave52

From Today’s paper, it seems ” CDOT officials said the global investment banking firm Goldman Sachs Group Inc. is working to redact the contract prior to possible release”.

Ya know, maybe somebody at CDOT might want to read a bit of the international press and see how, um, ‘useful’ Goldman Sachs Group has been when dealing with, say, Greek debt issues.

After all the fiascos in 2008, you’d think the states would have learned a lesson about fancy financial arrangements with inscrutable contracts written by Wall Street investment banks, then here we go again.

Dano2

The banks will own everything in a few years if we don’t stop them.

Give a man a gun and he can rob a bank. Give a man a bank and he can rob the world.

Best,

D

irisman

The tolls that have been mentioned are outrageously high, so few people will drive in the toll lanes, and for the great majority of drivers congestion will be as bad as before. New highways aren’t free, so the people will have to pay for them if they wish to avoid total gridlock.

toohip

More of the right/rich privatizing of America! If isn’t the public schools in Dougco and Jeffco it’s the People’s Republic Byway! Find another way to/from Boulder!

We drive 93 to go up to see CU men’s basketball, and it is really dicey during bad weather!

flyfish

‘… They can choose to pay more taxes, … Or, they can do nothing,…’

Really, how about we do this; Prioritize spending on Education, Infrastructure… growing the dependent class and growing government should be at the bottom of out list instead of the top.

Also, I would easily support a tax hike to fund a major highway expansion initiative in the Metro area. For 36, I’m talking major, 10+ lanes with HOV and space for light rail expansion. Same type of capacity increases for all major freeways and byways, 25, 70 470 (plus loop completion), 225, 76, 285, 85, 6th….

Of course this would have to be run and overseen by private industry, RTD is incapable if doing anything on-time and at budget. The stank of the last boondoggle is still to fresh on the voters mind to let them attempt to run anything.

alan9074

Please forgive me for my ignorance, but what was RTD’s last boondoggle? Thank you for any input.

flyfish

Sure, the last time we voted for a 6 county RTD tax increase light rail was to be built all over the Metro area. No light in the SW, none to Boulder, none to the airport….. Less then half of the light rail that we approved was built or will be built. How many years did TRex take on I25, have you driven on I25, the I70 interchanges are always backed up 18+ hours a day, seven days a week.

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